Yanmar Tractors
Yanmar Company, Ltd is a Japanese company specialising in the manufacturing and distribution of agricultural machinery, engines and other products. The company is one of Japan’s top agricultural machinery brands, alongside Kubota and Iseki & Co, and has long dominated Japan’s compact tractor market.
The Yanmar Co. was established nearly a century ago in 1912 by Magokichi Yamaoka, who studied under Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel internal combustion engine. Yanmar Co. gained fame for developing the first powered rice huller before beginning to export kerosene engines in 1927. Yanmar’s first diesel engine, which had five horsepower, was created in 1930. The company began mass-producing small diesel engines in 1947 for small fishing vessels, and quickly earned recognition for their products. Yanmar’s production quality has long been heralded, earning the company the Demming Prize in 1968. Production of Yanmar tractor engines is held to stringent standards to maintain the engines’ quality, yet the engines are produced at a rate of just over 2 engines per minute, the fastest rate in the entire diesel industry.
The agricultural equipment division of Yanmar did not open until July 1961. As of March 2006, Yanmar Agricultural Equipment Co., Ltd, the maker of Yanmar tractors, employed 1,155 people and had an annual turnover sales volume of 167.4 billion yen.
Despite their small size, Yanmar tractors are agricultural machinery created to do heavy labor. Most notable in Yanmar Co.’s range of equipment are the engines. Yanmar engines are used in a wide range of applications, from boats through to agricultural equipment and generators. The Yanmar Co. was an early leader for compact diesel engines. Yanmar’s first diesel engine was designed in 1930, and by 1933 the company had released the world’s first small horizontal diesel engine. A little known fact: American tractor giant John Deere Co. began using Yanmar exclusively to produce their compact/utility tractors and engines in the 1980s, with more than 100,000 engines shipped to John Deere by 1986. In fact, many John Deere tractors are entirely Yanmar constructed vehicles, made especially for John Deere Co. Many other tractor dealerships also use Yanmar engines. If you lift the hood of a tractor at a dealership, don’t be surprised if you find a Yanmar diesel engine in the tractor.
Yanmar tractors are popular “gray market tractors” in the United States. A gray market tractor is a pre-owned tractor that has been imported from another country, typically Japan that is reconditioned prior to being sold in the United States. Most gray market tractors are compact diesel models around 35 horsepower. Gray market tractors are generally not worked as hard as second hand tractors in the West and are generally used to till rice paddies.
Popular Yanmar tractor models include:
- Yanmar 1100 Diesel
- Yanmar 226 Diesel
- Yanmar 1301
- Yanmar 1401
- Yanmar 1510
- Yanmar 1500 Diesel
- Yanmar 1610
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